Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with Jennifer. There's a saying that goes like this:
If you can't beat them, join them. Usually in the flow of conversation, "them" is reduced,
so it sounds like this: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. It basically means
that it's okay to join the majority when you realize you can't win a fight against them.
Well, that may not be the best advice to follow in every situation in life because we
need people with the courage to go against the norm sometimes, right? That's how we innovate,
but the saying reminds me of what we often do with grammar. Sometimes a textbook or
a dictionary will tell us to say things one way, but we know that many people say it differently in
everyday English. That's the difference between prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar.
I generally recommend standard grammar because that's what's accepted in the
majority of situations. But it's completely reasonable to pay attention to the patterns
you hear around you and use them -- even if they're different from the so-called rules.
If you can't beat them, join them. It's okay to follow or even embrace descriptive grammar.
In general, I think being flexible and being adaptable benefit communication.
Here's one example where I follow descriptive grammar. The rules tell us that "there is/there
are" agrees with the noun that follows. There's a saying about acceptance of defeat.
"Saying" is singular. There are proverbs that inspire us and guide us. "Proverbs" is plural.
But in a list of items, American English speakers tend to focus on the first noun,
so when we use "there is/there are," we make the verb agree with the first noun in that list.
There is a poem, a song, and a movie with the same title.
This pattern is especially common in conversation because we use the
contraction "there's." There's a poem, a song, and a movie with the same title.
I know there are three items in the list, but I'm focusing on the first one: poem. And it's
singular, so I choose a singular verb. This is what most American English speakers do.
A similar strategy will guide you when you use phrases like these:
a list of poems, a line of shoppers, a crowd of first-year students.
Focus on the first noun and not the noun in the prepositional phrase.
There is a list of poems on her website.
There is a line of shoppers outside the door.
There is a crowd of first-year students in the cafeteria. List,
line, and crowd are examples of collective nouns. They put people or things together in a group.
The group is singular so one list is singular. One line is singular. One crowd is singular. Americans
tend to use singular verbs with collective nouns, but this is where it gets a little tricky. Don't
always assume that "of" + a plural noun means that what comes before that is a collective noun.
Do you remember what quantifiers do? They answer the questions HOW MUCH? or HOW MANY?
You're probably comfortable using common quantifiers. They're single words.
There are many ways to learn English.
There is much information for me to learn about creating an online store.
There are a few reasons to stop and more reasons to continue.
There is little doubt that everything will work out.
Quantifiers like "many" and "few" are used with plural countable nouns, and they take a plural
verb. Quantifiers like "much" and "little" are used with uncountable nouns, and they take a
singular verb. But quantifiers are not always a single word. We can have quantifying phrases,
and they often use the preposition "of." Now look at these sentences. The quantifying
expressions are used with uncountable nouns, so you'll see singular verbs.
Can you identify each quantifying phrase? There is a good deal of interest.
There is a good amount of money in that account.
There's quite a bit of work to be done.
Remember that some quantifiers can be used with countable or uncountable nouns. Focus on
the noun after the quantifying expression. That will help you determine subject-verb agreement.
There is plenty of time. There are plenty of towels.
There is more and more demand for the product. There are more and more cars on the road.
There is a lot of work to be done. There are a lot of people who can help.
There is a bunch of stuff here. There are a bunch of papers here.
Let me read some statements and you can identify the quantifying expressions. Okay?
There are a lot of apps for language learners.
There are tons of websites with free resources.
There are a number of digital products I want to offer.
There are a bunch of ideas I can't wait to put into action.
There are dozens of videos on that topic.
Now look again at those highlighted phrases. We use them to quantify countable nouns,
plural nouns, so we use a plural verb.
Note that the words "dozen" and "bunch" have two functions. They can be singular nouns,
but we can also use them as quantifiers. There is a dozen. One dozen. I'm referring to the group of
12 things. A single unit, so I use a singular verb. I could say, "There is a big bunch,"
and then I'm referring to that big group, a single unit. Again, I use a singular verb,
but "dozens of reasons" means all those different reasons. It's like "many," so I use a plural verb.
There are dozens of reasons why I did that.
And "a bunch of ideas" is like saying "a lot of ideas, many ideas," so again I use a plural verb.
There are a bunch of ideas I can't wait to put into action.
The word number is similar because I can use it as a singular noun:
I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10. There's a number I have in mind.
But I can also use "a number of" as a quantifier meaning "several" or "many."
There are a number of digital products I want to offer. Does that make sense so far? Good. We
can also look at the word "variety" and its two uses. The variety in that store is impressive.
Or we can use "a variety of things" to talk about many different things in a collection.
The Collins English dictionary offers a tip with "variety." They state that "a variety"
is often but not always considered plural, and "the variety" is considered singular.
A variety of colors are available. There are a variety of colors.
Let me just add that if someone said, "There's a variety of colors," I think
it's still acceptable. It's just a question of what the person is focusing on: the unit,
the group or the different things within that group.
So, we've talked about subject-verb agreement and lists, and we've
talked about subject-verb agreement with quantifiers and quantifying expressions.
We need to bring quantifying collective nouns back into this discussion.
I already gave some examples with line, list, and crowd. Those are collective nouns.
Here are more collective nouns that help us quantify things. A herd of elephants.
A swarm of bees. A host of problems. These nouns (herd, swarm, and host) pull things into a group.
These collective nouns also create a bit of a challenge with subject-verb agreement.
Collective nouns may be used with singular or plural verbs, but in American English,
we tend to consider them singular, so we use a singular verb. We say things like this:
There is a family sitting at the table. There is a committee handling this matter.
There was a swarm of bees under the tree. There is a herd of horses running across the field.
Family, committee, swarm, and herd all have many things within them, but I'm thinking of
them as a single unit. In the last two examples, I'm thinking of the group -- that one group.
The swarm and not all the bees. The herd and not all the horses. So far, I've only shown
collective noun + "of" + plural noun. But some collective nouns are used with uncountable nouns:
a pack of wolves or a pack of gum. Do you know how farmers count hay? We can count them as bales.
A bale. A bale of hay. Many bales. Many bales of hay. There was a bale of hay in front of the barn.
There were many bales of hay in the fields. What can we have piles of? A pile of laundry,
a pile of trash, a pile of wood. "Pile" is countable, but laundry, trash, and wood are not.
A word like "pile" allows us to collect things into a group, a countable form.
That's what collective nouns do. There's a big pile of laundry that I need to wash.
There's a big pile of dirty towels that I need to wash. If you found the lesson useful so far,
please subscribe. How about a quiz to check your understanding? Don't worry if you get
some items wrong. You can always go back and review the points and patterns I covered.
I know we covered a lot, so take the time to review and practice. Use the patterns. Look
for them. Listen for them. Pay attention to how people use nouns and noun phrases
with singular or plural verbs. That's all for now. Please like and share the video if you
found the lesson useful. A special thank you to all my YouTube members and all my patrons
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